Saipem Awarded New Drilling Contracts of $850 mi

By Joseph R. Fonseca

Saturday, August 02, 2014

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Saipem has been awarded new drilling contracts in Indonesia, Nigeria, the Arabian Gulf and Latin America worth approximately $850 million of which $540 million are related to offshore activity and refer to four different units of Saipem’s fleet.

Saipem has signed with Eni Muara Bakau B.V. a contract for the utilization of the Scarabeo 7 which will be operating offshore Indonesia drilling a minimum of 12 wells; the project is estimated to be completed in first quarter 2017. The vessel will remain under contract with Eni until February 2018. Scarabeo 7 is a fifth generation semi-submersible drilling rig, capable of operating in water depths of up to 5,000 feet.

Furthermore, in West Africa the contract for the Scarabeo 3 has been extended to March 2015. Scarabeo 3 is a second generation semi-submersible drilling rig, with capacity to operate in water depths of up to 1,500 feet.

In addition, NDC has extended the contract for the jack-up rig Perro Negro 2 for 24 months, starting from January 2015, for activities in the Arabian Gulf. In Ecuador, EP Petroamazonas has extended by 10 months the charter of the jack-up rig Ocean Spur, operated (not owned) by Saipem until the end of the first quarter of 2015. Both these jack-up are rigs capable to operate in water depths of up to 300 feet.

In relation to onshore drilling, Saipem has been awarded by different clients new contracts worth approximately $310 million, relating to 31 drilling rigs in South America: 21 in Venezuela, 7 in Peru, 2 in Colombia and one in Ecuador. The contracts have been signed under different terms, varying from three months to two years, and starting at different times during 2014.